HERE'S A HEADLINE

you haven't seen lately: Detroit is making some hot new cars, and buyers are taking notice. While the Big Three still have plenty of problems, the surprise hits are a trio of crossover vehicles from General Motors the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave. Crossovers are basically minivans without the soccer-mom stigma, and SUVs without the image of environmental wrecking balls. And largely thanks to GM's strong start, sales of big crossovers rose 33% in the first four months of the year, even as overall vehicle sales dropped 3%.

Why the sudden success? Quite simply, these crossovers are the best new vehicles from the General in years, and they're the best offerings in a new class of six- to eight-passenger vehicles that combine the carlike handling of a minivan with the all-wheel-drive ability of an SUV.

That's a pleasant surprise for American-car lovers for a couple of reasons: GM has a spotty record in launching new products, and the basic architecture on which the Acadia, Outlook and Enclave are built was developed way back in the Internet-bubble era, in the year 2000. That work was put on ice while GM executives debated and debated some more about whether crossovers really had a future. The delay allowed Honda to steal the march in this class with its upscale Acura MDX, launched in 2000, and the midmarket Honda Pilot, launched in 2002.

But better late than never. GM is now abandoning the minivan market leaving it mostly to Chrysler, Honda and Toyota after a succession of ugly and mediocre offerings. Instead, the company is focusing on crossovers, and their early success, especially that of the GMC Acadia, makes this look like a wise decision.

While they aren't as fuel-thirsty as most SUVs, crossovers aren't exactly econoboxes. Each member of the new General Motors trio weighs in at close to 5,000 pounds in the all-wheel-drive version outweighing the Honda Accord sedan, for example, by nearly a ton.

Like their competitors, they have three rows of seats, but they're longer, wider and heavier than most other vehicles in this class. Each of the GM trio is more than a foot longer than the Honda Pilot, for example, and nearly that much longer than the Hyundai Veracruz. The extra length translates into lots more interior room, especially when second and third rows of seats are folded flat into the floor, which can be done with very little effort. With just the third seat folded down, the Acadia, Outlook and Enclave have some 69 cubic feet of interior storage space compared with roughly 48 cubic feet in the Pilot and the Mazda CX-9.

Even though the GM vehicles outweigh most direct competitors by about 500 pounds, their fuel economy is as good or better. The all-wheel-drive versions get 17 mpg in city driving and 24 mpg on the highway, according to government estimates. While the Pilot is lighter, its mileage is rated at just 22 mpg on the highway and 17 mpg in the city. The six-speed automatic transmission on the GM trio, compared with the five-speed on the Pilot, accounts for the difference.

We found the Acadia and the Outlook a pleasure to drive in virtually every respect (the Enclave, last of the three to reach the market, wasn't available for testing). The handling is very good, so parking is easy despite their size. And the interiors are of much higher quality than in GM vehicles of the recent past. The 275-hp, V-6 engines provide plenty of pull. And if acceleration isn't exactly exhilarating, well, these aren't sports cars, after all.

Pricing is good too, especially for the Saturn Outlook. With a lengthy list of features that includes air conditioning, all-wheel drive, power locks and windows, traction and stability control, and dual-zone climate controls, the Outlook XR carries a base sticker price of $32,290, including destination charge. That's $3,670 less than the base price of the comparable Acadia SLT and only $750 more than the smaller Honda Pilot. The Outlook XR we drove recently which included such optional equipment as leather and heated seats, XM Satellite radio and a push-button rear liftgate carried a sticker price of $34,809.

Our only fault with GM's new crossovers is the marketing strategy. With eight domestic brands and less than 25% of the market, GM is consolidating Buick, Pontiac and GMC into a single sales channel, with the stated objective that they won't have overlapping vehicles. Why, then, do both Buick and GMC get a version of the new crossover when Chevrolet GM's biggest division gets none? GM executives hint that Chevy might introduce a crossover fairly soon; meanwhile, they maintain that the Buick Enclave and the GMC Acadia are different enough to be sold in the same showrooms. Perhaps. But for the first time in years, GM has hot vehicles in a hot segment. It would be a shame to see these advantages undone by muddled marketing.